'How can this be happening in the United States?'

Transcripts from McCarthy's communist witch hunt remind us of one of this nation's darkest periods

May 16, 2003|By Ron Grossman, Tribune staff reporter.

McCarthy himself fell from grace just as rapidly as he had risen. In 1954, he accused the U.S. Army of harboring subversives. The generals hired Joseph Welch, a shrewd Boston lawyer, to represent them at widely watched televised hearings that led to McCarthy's being censured by his fellow senators.

McCarthy noted that a young lawyer on Welch's staff briefly had belonged to a left-wing organization. That gave Welch (who afterward reprised his folksy courtroom manner in the 1959 movie "Anatomy of a Murder") the opportunity to demonstrate McCarthy's bullying tactics.

"Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness," Welch said, "I would like to think I am a gentle man, but, your forgiveness will have to come from others."

With his aids trying to restrain him, McCarthy attempted to proceed with his character assassination. It was a typical performance, in which McCarthy would try to twist a small fact into a major crime.

"Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?" Welch said, in effect reading McCarthy's political obituary. "Have you left no sense of decency?"

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Testimony behind closed doors

When Sen. Joseph McCarthy took charge of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in 1953, he gave new meaning to the term "executive session." Congressional committees occasionally met behind closed doors, generally to handle housekeeping matters. But McCarthy saw quite another potential in the practice. For him, closed-door sessions were an opportunity to audition potential witnesses for televised public hearings. He and his staff would sort out those who would be compliant from others who couldn't be browbeaten into testifying according to McCarthy's vision of an America riddled with communist spies.

While the previous chairman had held six such meetings in 1952, during McCarthy's first year as chairman, the committee met in private 117 times. Because the transcripts of those closed-door hearings weren't published, executive sessions allowed McCarthy to give reporters his version of what witnesses had said. With those transcripts now released, it can be seen that McCarthy's spin was often at odds with the actual testimony.

Aaron Copland

Composer Copland--whose works include "Billy the Kid" and "Appalachian Spring"--went to Italy on a Fulbright grant in 1951. Afterwards, he was summoned before the committee. Never asked to testify in public, he subsequently won the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a Congressional Gold Medal.

Sen. McCarthy: You have been a lecturer representing the United States in other nations. One of the reasons why we appropriate the money to pay lecturers is to enlighten people as to the American way of life and do something towards combating communism. Is it your testimony that you know nothing about the Communist movement or are you fairly well acquainted with the Communist movement?

Copland: It was my understanding that my lectureship was purely a musical assignment.

Sen. McCarthy: Answer my question. Do you know anything about the Communist movement?

Copland: I know what I read in the newspapers. . . .

Roy Cohn (committee counsel): What was your view on the trouble between the Soviet Union and Finland?

McCarthy: May I rephrase that, Roy. Did you feel at that time we should declare war on Finland?

Copland: Senator McCarthy, I am in no position--I spend my days writing symphonies, concertos, ballads, and I am not a political thinker. My relation has been extremely tangent. . . .

McCarthy: Did you agree with the statement by Eisler that "Revolutionary music is now more powerful than ever. Its political and artistic importance is growing daily."

Copland: That is a vague statement. I don't know what he means by "revolutionary music."

McCarthy: Do you agree with him that there is a political importance in music?

Copland: I certainly would not. What the Soviet government has been trying to do in forcing their composers to write along lines favorable to themselves is absolutely wrong. It is one of the basic reasons why I could have no sympathy with such an attitude.

McCarthy: Would you say a good musician who is a Communist could be important in influencing people in favor of the Communist cause?

Copland: Perhaps in some indirect way.

McCarthy: One final question. Quoting Hanns Eisler, is this a correct description of you by Eisler: I am extremely pleased to report a considerable shift to the left among the American artistic intelligentsia. I don't think it would be an exaggeration to state that the best people in the musical world of America (with very few exceptions) share at present extremely progressive ideas. Their names? They are Aaron Copland. Would you say that is a correct description of you?

Copland: No, I would not. I would say he is using knowledge of my liberal feelings in the arts and in general to typify me as a help to his own cause.